SEND - The Big Plan! | How we plan for SEND

This video helps to bring Big Plan to life. If you scroll down, you‘ll see more information about the Big Plan.

The SEND Big plan front page

A call to action

Why do you need to read this?

Because we want to let you know what we’re doing - it’s important to all of us and together we can make even more of a difference.

Who is this for?

This is important for everyone, but mainly those who live or work with children and young people who have Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) from birth to 25.

Why you?

Because you have the power to make a difference every day. We see so many great examples of that happening and we know we can connect better.

What are we trying to achieve?

Together we’ve always tried and will continue to make sure that every child has the best possible start in life and achieve their best. We know that there are always opportunities to improve how we do that - sometimes that’s doing more, but often it’s about doing things differently.

We’re ambitious for children, young people and parents and carers in Kirklees. We’re trying to make sure we support children and families at the earliest opportunity; our young people go to school in Kirklees with positive results; there’s a consistent and inclusive offer; and whatever our young people are interested in, we want them to excel.

You can find out more about our 7 inclusive ambitions in the Our Kirklees Futures Executive Implementation Plan (downloads PDF in new window).

When we achieve this, young people have told us what it would look and feel like. Examples include “I feel ready for my next steps”, “I will be attending a school in Kirklees”, “Services are better used and waiting lists go down”.

What’s the action?

It only takes a couple of minutes to read this. We’d love to hear more of your examples of how impact is being made.

You can leave message via our easy to use questionnaire - SEND The Big Plan – sharing good news questionnaire (opens link in new window), or you can ask us to contact you.

Children sitting at a table with an adult using sign language

We’ve listened to what young people, parents, carers and partners (Education, Health, Voluntary Sector and Council) have said.

Our young people told us not to talk about Strategy, call it ‘Our Big Plan’ so that’s what this is. You also said “don’t write lots of stuff - keep it simple”.

We know everyone around the country is facing similar issues to Kirklees. In January 2023 we had 63,741 children and young people who go to school in Kirklees. The number of requests for support with SEND have increased significantly and are more complex, and the amount of money available to us has not been and isn’t enough. We need to look at different ways to make the differences we’ve jointly set out to achieve.

There is no single action that sorts everything out, so we need to have a Big Plan to focus the work. This then makes it easier to share what’s planned, what’s been achieved and what’s left to do.

We’ve been working together and we’re looking at ways to further improve.

We’re bringing partners together in an Improvement Board to oversee and drive the work. We already link into key meetings where partners come together and we’ll continue to look at how we can best use established arrangements rather than create more.

How can people get involved?

There will be increasing engagement with and through our partners such as Education, NHS - Health / Locala, Voluntary Sector partners such as PCAN, and the Council. In addition, you can click the link to get in touch with us and we’ll talk with you to see what might work best for you

What and when

This plan has developed over time and there are now 3 key areas of work that focus on ‘Need’ (Demand); ‘Are we getting it right’ (Quality & Compliance); and ‘Enough of the right stuff’ (Sufficiency).

We’ve listened and heard what parents, carers and young people have said and have made sure that feedback is built into the projects.

Some things that we’re doing:

Graphic showing how demand, sufficiency, quality and compliance all work together

a. Need (Demand)

Re-designing things so people get the right help at the earliest point; Supporting people from birth into adulthood (Transition at all stages / Preparation for Adulthood). This ties back to what young people have told us if we get it right – “I feel ready for my next steps”.

b. Are we getting it right (Quality & Compliance)

The right support happens as quickly as possible and, where it doesn’t, we understand why and try to improve things. We know what is going well and do more of this.

c. Enough of the right stuff (Sufficiency)

We use data, research and feedback from children and families to work out what’s needed. We then reshape or change how we do things, so they are easier to understand and work better.

We’ve also increased our support for teachers, pupils and their families. We’ve already increased Additionally Resourced Provisions (ARPs) in some schools and are looking to do more of this. 2 of our special schools are being rebuilt with more places for pupils. Building works will be finished in 2026.
There’s lots of detailed plans underneath this and we’ll bring more of that detail together in our SEND Transformation Plan. We produce the Kirklees SEND newsletter with updates on progress at least 4-times a year - if you don’t already get it, you can find it on our Kirklees SEND Newsletter page (opens link in same window)
We’ve also made 7 commitments that we’ve shared with Government inspectors in our ‘Written Statement of Action’. These can be seen below and the things we have planned / are doing will help us achieve those.
Joint system ownership: We need all of us - partners including young people, parents and carers, and voluntary groups, to own, drive and make sure that things happen in the best way possible to make a difference.
We will try our best to listen to you, hear you and act on what you have told us. Our aim is to work with you and partners so that you get the support that you need.

We have previously agreed these 7 commitments with Government inspectors in our Written Statement of Action:

Improve parent/carer confidence/young people’s confidence in Kirklees SEND system
Increase the range and impact of early intervention strategies
Increase the sufficiency of places and settings across Kirklees Council
Increasing and improve the timeliness of responses to needs of children and young people with SEND
Enhance and improve the preparation for adulthood (PfA)
Improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND in mainstream settings
Addressing workforce pressures and capacity issues

You can also download a PDF of The SEND Big Plan here (Downloads 1.19MB PDF document)